The Annoying Orange (series)
Information The Annoying Orange is a comedy web series created by Dane Boedigheimer, under the YouTube pseudonym “Daneboe”. With the first episode uploaded on October 9, 2009, the series’ dedicated channel (“realnannoyingorange”) has amassed more than 380 million views on YouTube. The first few episodes were uploaded to Boedigheimer and his company Gagfilms’ YouTube channel (“Daneboe”), but when the Annoying Orange video views reached 11 million views on this channel, he decided to make a new dedicated channel for the Annoying Orange. As of January 3, 2011, the channel is ranked as the 8th most subscribed channel of all, and 40th most viewed of all time. There are currently more than a million subscribers to realannoyingorange. Background A talking Orange first appeared in one of Boedigheimer's videos on March 16, 2007. The current show features a talking orange called The Annoying Orange, or just Orange, played by Dane Boedigheimer. Boedigheimer's partner Spencer Grove writes the episodes. The first episode of The Annoying Orange was originally uploaded on October 9, 2009, on Boedigheimer's channel. Orange heckles other fruits, vegetables, or nearby animated objects, with puns and jokes. Orange resides on a kitchen counter, which he shares with his best friend Pear, a Bartlett pear, also played by Boedigheimer. Despite being his friend, Pear also finds Orange to be annoying as well. Other fruits that live on the counter include Passion Fruit, a passionfruit played by Justine Ezarik, a tiny apple known to everyone as Midget Apple, and a small marshmallow called Marshmallow. Most episodes consist of Orange heckling other characters, which often become annoyed and meet a sudden and gruesome end, usually by evisceration with a chef's knife (although their fates can be diverse, ranging from a blender to a toy pinwheel). Comically, Orange tries to warn them about it before it happens, by blurting out the weapon-in-use, such as "Knife!" To animate the characters, Boedigheimer superimposes the voice actor's eyes (or more accurately, one of their eyes duplicated) and the mouth onto the object they are playing. For instance, Boedigheimer uses his own eyes and mouth to play both Orange and Pear (although Orange's mouth has been slightly modified, so that it has a distinctive orange tint to it, while Pear's mouth has a normal unadjusted mouth) and does the same for all the guest actors that don't appear in a human form in the episode. Orange has several recurring mannerisms that make him distinctively annoying. He often starts the episode by saying "Hey, (name of character)!" until they get frustrated enough to respond, and often utilises a play on the object's name or appearance (e.g., in the second episode, he calls a pumpkin "plumpkin" throughout the rest of the episode). He also annoys people by telling rude and offensive jokes, burping, and making childish noises with his tongue. Orange has a braying laugh that tends to be just as annoying as his voice, and he often tells the objects he annoys "You're an apple!" if he doesn't like them. In the earliest episodes Boedigheimer played the fruit/vegetable Orange was annoying, but this has since changed to include at least one guest actor/YouTuber in each episode. These have included Bob Jennings (aka Bobjenz), who played Grapefruit, Ginger, and Liam the Leprechaun (which spun off into his own series – see below), Justine Ezarik (aka iJustine) (which led to her becoming a recurring cast member), Lucas Cruikshank, Take180's Evan Ferrante, and Weezer. Two crossovers were created as the result of guest appearances. In July 2010 Boedigheimer guest-starred as Orange in "Fred Goes Grocery Shopping!", and Cruikshank returned the favor the next day by playing Fred Figglehorn in the Annoying Orange episode "Annoying Orange vs. Fred!!!". In August 2010 Ferrante appeared the leader of a race of broccoli aliens in the Annoying Orange episode "Close Encounters of the Annoying Kind" one day after Boedigheimer appeared in Ferrante's Take180 series "Not Tom Cruise" as Orange. Three of Weezer's members appeared as objects on a party platter in the episode "Wazzup 3: Bonsai Tree", with lead singer Rivers Cuomo appearing as the title object; the appearance was part of Weezer's promotion of their album Hurley, where they took to several YouTube channels (including Boedigheimer's and Cruikshank's) to promote the record. In August 2010, the 1,000,000th YouTuber suscribed to the Annoying Orange. The series was rated as the most viewed web series of February and March 2010 by Mashable, with over 52 million views in March.56 As of April 26, 2010, the series had over 108 million views on YouTube. Main Characters Orange Orange is the main character around which the series is based. Voiced by Dane Boedigheimer, he has appeared in every episode since the start of the series on October 9, 2009. Orange has yellow teeth, blue eyes, and a braying laugh. Episodes are characterized by his taunting and annoying his victims-to-be with his adolescent behavior that frequently includes burping, pestering, puns, and plays on words. These actions often infuriate the other character to the point where they start yelling at him to shut up, only to have Orange warn them of their impending doom: evisceration with a chef's knife, a blender or other devices. Boedigheimer describes the character as a composite of people in his life, saying "everyone knows somebody like him: They don't listen, they are annoying, and at the same time they are kind of lovable". First appearance - October 9, 2009 (The Annoying Orange (episode) Voiced by: Dane Boedigheimer Pear Pear lives on the same kitchen counter as Orange. He is a Bartlett pear with the same colored eyes as Orange, and despite being friends with Orange he is also annoyed by him. Pear started out wanting to die as Orange was harassing him too much, but calmed down soon later and became close with Orange, as Orange has become a little socially smarter. First appearance – October 9, 2009 (The Annoying Orange (episode)) Voiced by: Dane Boedigheimer Passion Fruit Passion Fruit, simply called Passion by her friends, is what her name implies. She lives on the same counter in the same kitchen as the others, having been brought into the kitchen along with Grapefruit, who later got cut up by Knife. Orange has a crush on her. Although she eventually became friends with the other fruits, Passion is still turned off by insults and scolds Pear and Orange whenever they engage in them. She often will try to settle issues and stop Orange from being annoying. She has the personality of a teenager. She has a sister named Mandy (first appeared in the December 24, 2010 episode "Wishful Thinking") who is going out with Pear. First appearance – February 19, 2010 (Annoying Orange: Passion of the Fruit) Voiced by Justine Ezarik Midget Apple Midget Apple is a tiny Red Delicious apple that appeared in the kitchen in the episode “Annoying Orange: Crabapple”. He is a friend of Orange, Pear, Passion Fruit and Marshmallow, but hates being called "Midget Apple". He prefers the name "Little Apple", but everyone simply refuses to call him by that name. He is Marshmallow's best friend. First appearance – August 06, 2010 (Annoying Orange: Crabapple) Voiced by: Dane Boedigheimer Marshmallow Marshmallow is a small, childlike marshmallow that Orange befriended after both of them were kidnapped by Jigsaw in Annoying Saw 2: The Annoying Death Trap. After succeeding in harassing Jigsaw, Marshmallow moved into the kitchen and shares counter space with Midget Apple. It is a recurring gag in the series that he would catch fire or suffer a misfortune similar to the other foods that Orange has annoyed, however Marshmallow seems to be unaffected to these, as he is even shown bathing in a mug of hot chocolate. First appearance – September 24, 2010 (Annoying Saw 2: The Annoying Death Trap) Voiced by: Dane Boedigheimer Episodes See List of Annoying Orange episodes